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Sara Stoeckle, a tenth-grade student at Avonworth High School, is in the process of writing a novel. To students interested in pursuing language arts or writing, here’s some advice for starting from page one. How do you motivate yourself to continue this hefty project amidst the busy life of a high school student? And what insight can she provide to other students interested in following the same path? Writing a book is an extensive project. Many challenges accompany stepping into the writing world, like keeping up consistent self-motivation, finding your unique style, and fueling your creativity. Sara’s perspective on the ups and downs of being a student writer can even give insight into what it’s like to step outside of your comfort zone and motivate yourself in challenging, sometimes daunting, projects to reach a worthwhile goal.
At the end of her eighth-grade year, Sara began writing the novel, having been passionate about reading and inspired by popular thriller books like A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, One of Us is Lying, and Last One to Die. When asked why she decided to take on the task of writing a book on her own after receiving inspiration from these favorites, she remarked, “There are things that I don’t see in books that I wish I saw, whether it’s representation or just little details that I want to see. And I think it’s so cool to be able to make a little world in your mind and be able to put it on paper and let other people enjoy it as well.” Saying she always had an interest in the imaginative aspect of writing, her initial reason for writing a book was to create a story of her own and to enjoy it with others.
Read along to learn more about the personal challenges that accompany writing, and the honest advice of a student writer.
Q1: How would you describe the plot and the main characters?
Sara: Her name is Ellery. She lives in Pennsylvania, of course, and she lives in a very small town, and she goes to high school. She is in eleventh-grade, and she’s not very outgoing. She’s more introverted. She’s loosely based on myself. And the plot of it is that during the first party of that school year, a murder happens. The captain of the cheerleading team is murdered, and it’s this whole big thing. Murders continue to happen around the town, which is very abnormal because they live in a small town in rural Pennsylvania. So, it’s just very confusing. Ellery is named as one of the main suspects because she does not have a strong alibi, and so she and another person named Gavin both need to figure out who the killer is because both of them are suspected for very good reasons, which will be said in the book of why they are the killer.
Q2: How do you make these characters realistic and well-rounded? A lot of authors struggle with creating these complex characters. So how do you do it?
Sara: I honestly just base them off of real people, not completely, but I’ll take personalities from multiple people that I know. I could get three people in my mind, and kind of put them all into one person and make that a character, so it’s more accurate, and everyone has flaws. So, I would say making sure that your character is well-rounded is making sure that they aren’t completely perfect. Nobody is perfect. It’s not normal to be completely perfect. So, if you’re reading a book and the character is perfect at everything that they do, then it’s not going to make you be able to relate to the person you’re reading about. So, I just think that making it so that they have their own problems and they have their own faults is a way to make a very well-rounded character.
Q3: Okay, so more on you basing the main character off of yourself. Why do you think you chose to do that?
Sara: I think it was so I could make writing the book easier because I’m more comfortable writing from my own perspective. Like, I don’t think that I could write a main character who is super extroverted at the moment. Since this is my first major work, I think being in Ellery’s mind all the time and hearing everything from her perspective would make it all just a little bit easier to make it closer to my personality.
Q4: The book is written from a first-person perspective. Why did you choose to do that?
Sara: I think just because I’m not the most skilled writer, so I think first-person perspective is good to just get into it. It’s easier for me. Most of this is just because I’m new to this whole thing. I’ve written smaller pieces before in previous classes, but nothing as big as a whole book.
Q5: Okay, you mentioned this a little bit before, about how you were struggling to continue writing. What does “writer’s block” mean to you?
Sara: I think just kind of being stuck in the story, you’re making all of this up on your own. Like, sure you might have other people to help you. I know that I’ve asked people to help me come up with names or different things in different scenes, but writer’s block is just when the story is paused and you can’t exactly access it in your brain. That’s going on right now with me. I just try and sit down to write but those creative juices are not flowing.
Q6: And how do you keep the motivation to continue?
Sara: I think just remembering and telling myself, these characters deserve to be put on this page, you’ve made them up, you’ve decided their whole life, and just wanting to share that with other people and wanting to be proud and having finished writing a book. Not very many people can say that they’ve written their own book and published it as a teenager. And so, just in general, we see all these authors, but that’s just a couple thousand people. And I think that would be very cool to publish a book and be proud of just another thing in my life.
Q7: How do you find your writing style?
Sara: Just by practicing writing, seeing what feels comfortable, what feels uncomfortable. The more comfortable that something is, is definitely what I’m more leaning towards. I love using descriptive words. I love explaining things in detail. And I know many authors don’t do that, and that’s just not how they write.
Q8: What would you say to people who go through the same obstacles of being a beginner writer? What would you say to them to motivate them to continue writing?
Sara: That one’s a tough one. I would just say, keep practicing if you are a beginner. So it’s not going to be perfect and listen to your gut. Because if you’re writing and you’re like, “Oh, I really don’t like this.” Just get rid of it, start over. Just completely get rid of it and just start over. I know I’ve done that multiple times, but writing a book is a lot. It is crazy. Sometimes I wonder why I’m doing this, and then I think about what I told you before about how I just want to have, like, this thing to hold on to and have these characters in my mind.
Q9: What advice would you give to other students in your situation who want to write?
Sara: Just do it honestly. Whether you are starting with a whole plan or you’re just starting with words on paper, just do it. It’s completely worth it. And you get these little characters in your head that, if you just want to turn on some music to daydream, do that. If you just want to a make Google Doc and start typing words down, do it.
The greatest theme in Sara’s experience is to just jump in headfirst. Mistakes will be made, and there will probably be many discarded drafts at the bottom of your Google Drive, but errors will happen, and no first try will ever be perfect. This truth doesn’t only apply to writing, but also to everyday life. One failed test, a blundered sports game, or a slice of burnt bread in the toaster doesn’t amount to failure overall. It’s an opportunity to start fresh and improve on your mistakes next time. As long as you hold fast to your goal, and learn from your mistakes, any challenging task is doable, even writing a novel completely from scratch.
To aspiring writers unsure where to start, or anxious to make a mistake, take Sara’s advice to heart- just begin, and see where it takes you.
